ONE SHOT PRODUCTIONS
A Day in the Life
of a Comic Book
Pin-up Art
Available Now
Coming Soon
Characters
WEB JOURNAL
Being an Indie Publisher ain't
easy.
It's not a way to get rich, and it's really not even a way to
break even. Maybe everyone has a different reason why they would start
publishing comics independently, but my reason is pretty simple. I just
have to. I drew my first comic book on notebook paper with colored pencils
in 1987 when I was 10 years old. And it sucked. Thankfully, my comics
improved (slowly) over the following 10 or so years. I started publishing
my comics in 2001. I love writing comics, and I'm getting more and more
into developing my style of art as well.
Indie publishers have to balance all the same facets of life as anyone else (day job, chores, personal life, etc) but we also have to find the time to squeeze in all the duties of publishing that are usually done by a TEAM of paid comic professionals (writing, drawing, lettering, web design, promoting, etc). Sometimes you just want to relax. Sometimes you do that a little more often than you should. Sometimes a LOT more.
So on May 16, 2007, I decided to make a stand. I decided to try to do SOMETHING comic related EVERY DAY. I do have some rules, which are pretty loose and apt to change. I started this web log on July 1st 2007, and so far I HAVE done something for my comics every day. I don't know how long it can last, but I'm going to try.
I've
decided to chronicle my daily comic tasks right here for our readers, to
give them a peek into the creative steps and behind-the-scenes processes
that bring these stories to the page. Enjoy :)
-Jay W. Davis, One Shot
Productions
Previous Blogs: [Jul-Dec 2007] - [Jan-Jun 2008] - [Jul-Dec 2008] - [Jan-Jun 2009] - [Jul-Dec 2009] - [Jan-Jun 2010] ------------------
JULY 26,
2010
I added highlights to the people on pages five and
six (since I only added shading the last two days). After that, I made a
selection image for chapter one, using art from page four. I added this
new selection image to the "webcomics" page and the "Mark of the Jinn"
individual title page. I also wrote a short blurb about the story to use
on each page.
JULY 25,
2010
Continuing the digital shading, I worked on the people
layer of page six. Panel 3 on this page has a lot of overlapping elements.
That type of overlapping always slows me down a bit, but it was okay. Four
of these panels also contain the big bug which is important to this story
arc. It overlaps a character in each of those four panels.
JULY 24,
2010
With all the digital work done on chapter one (Mark of
the Jinn: Hope), I moved on to chapter two. I added shading to the people
& foreground elements of page five (no highlights yet). Some of the
people & objects had overlapping parts, but it wasn't too
tough.
JULY 23,
2010
Nothing too fancy tonight. I finished off each of the
first four pages by adding a copyright blurb. After that, I built four
html pages to hold the images once it's posted online.
JULY 22,
2010
I added the "bright sky" effect to pages three and four
(Mark of the Jinn: Hope). After that, I checked these first four pages for
any little leftover work that didn't get finished. On page three, I
cropped a couple of the text balloons that were overlapping the panel
border (like in panel 1). I also like to combine all the text layers into
a single layer, so I did that as well. I saved each page as a web-ready
"jpg" image (though I keep the layered "tif" version in another folder in
case I need to fix anything later). Once the images were converted to
"jpg" format, I resized each one to be consistent with the rest of my
webcomics.
JULY 21,
2010
Since chapter one (Mark of the Jinn: Hope) takes place
out on the open sea in a tiny boat, I wanted to add the "bright sky"
effect. I do this by creating a slight "outer glow" to all the sky areas,
which overlaps the outline of the characters & objects touching the
sky in each panel. I've used a bigger version of this effect in stories
like "Ogburn v. Vampires," but I didn't want to go over the top with it
here. So in pages one and two, I just added a toned-down version of this
effect in all the panels that show some sky. Also on page two, panels 4
& 5 have areas that show the surface of the sea which I have not yet
dealt with. Using the same technique from page four, I digital hand-made a
water texture into each panel by using shadows and highlights. And like
page four, these effects turned out great. Unlike page one, where I made a
computer-generated water texture, the ones on this page are unique to each
panel. I use the lines already in the artwork to give me clues about how
the water is moving in each panel, and I make small curved lines to mimic
those movements. It's turning out really well, and I can't wait to post
this chapter to the site on the first of next month!
JULY 20,
2010
I finished the shadows & highlights for page four
which include the boat & water (panel 1) and island & water (panel
2). I was concerned with how the water would turn out here. On the first
page of this chapter, I created a texture pattern for the overhead shot of
the sea, but that texture won't work here. The texture doesn't appear on
the other pages, because they contain mostly close shots of characters
with minimal water in the background. Here on page four, though, the water
has more presence. I decided to create texture here by hand. That meant
making short slightly-curved shadows to go along with shape of the choppy
sea surface. I used shadows more heavily on the side away from the sun,
and some bright highlights on the other side. It looks great! I had to do
this for both panels, and I couldn't be more pleased. This is one of those
pages that could have been a real problem, but ended up working like a
charm :)
JULY 19,
2010
Started working on the shading for "Mark of the Jinn:
Hope" page four. The page consists of only two panels, including a
"reveal" shot in panel 2. I only worked on adding shadows and highlights
to the characters in panel 1. Since this is the larger of the two panels,
this one has more on it! I was able to get through all four characters,
including a little bit of overlapping, which generally makes things take a
bit longer (since it requires additional "masking" to avoid affecting one
character while working on another). Everything here worked out the way I
wanted, and Hanta's vest behaved this time without creating extra work
:)
JULY 18,
2010
For some reason, the shading on page three really slowed
me down. Well, the first four panels are pretty simple, but panel 5
tripped me up. There are a couple of characters out in front, then a part
of the wooden boat, then two more characters. When I separated these
layers a while back, I cut out all the characters onto a single layer. I
probably should have split them into two layers (maybe even a third layer
for the wooden part of the boat). Since I didn't do that, I had to zoom in
and tediously "mask off" the areas I wanted to work on. In particular,
Hanta's vest in this panel was a nightmare. There shouldn't have been
anything tough or tricky with it, I just kept messing it up. Again and
again. I'd mess up and try to fix it, then mess it up again. So I just
deleted the gray covering his vest, and filled in with the flat gray tone
so I could start over. Then I did that two or more times after
each failed attempt. I just kept making it too dark. These characters are
out in a boat in the middle of the sea, so it just looked dumb to have his
vest so dark in this panel. On the other hand, his vest is really dark in
panel 3, but he's in the extreme foreground so it's like he's casting a
shadow on the "camera" and it works fine in the panel :)
JULY 17,
2010
More digital shading today. I added shadows &
highlights to all the people & foreground elements on page two (Mark
of the Jinn: Hope). There's a cool little leech or worm thing in panel 1
that turned out nicely. It was a bit tricky to shade the interior of the
boats in panel 4, since it's an overhead view. Everything else was
routine.
JULY 16,
2010
I started on digital shading for chapter one today! This
step always feels like such progress, as the shading really helps add
depth to the art and gray tones. I shaded the people & foreground
elements on all of page one, which took just over an hour. Part of my goal
for this volume of "Mark of the Jinn" is take a minimalist approach to the
shading. What I mean is that I don't want to spend an excessive amount of
time trying to make each page look as photo-realistic as possible with the
shading. Instead, I want to use the shading to add some depth, then move
on. I want production of this project to move quickly, so we can get to
more of the story (including future volumes). Of course, I've started
pretty slow with the digital clean up, layer separations, etc. up to this
point. I'm making some changes in my work area, which should help me
increase my productivity very soon :)
JULY 15,
2010
Pretty simple work today. On page four, only panel 2
needed a polished frame (since it floats over the only other panel on the
page). I finished the text boxes for the three measly lines of dialogue. I
did a little digital clean-up on this page, as there were some dark flecks
in the open white sky areas (a result of scanning the art into the
computer). This didn't feel like quite enough work, so I inserted the
title and credits for the next chapter (which starts on page
five).
JULY 14,
2010
The frames / panel borders on page three got some
treatment today (Mark of the Jinn: Hope). After that, I finished the
lettering here. Same stuff as yesterday, making text boxes &
balloons and positioning them nicely in each panel. Lettering is such a
chore, but I'm glad that I've got the hang of it. At first, it seems like
it should be such an easy job. Sure, in some panels, it's obvious where
the text should go (like in a blank area over the speaker's head). Of
course, not all panels are as simple as that. And sometimes it can be
challenging to get the pointy little "tail" of a word balloon look just
right. Every once in a while, you'll get one of these tails that just will
NOT play nicely like the others. I'll make the tail too big, then too
small... then just the right size but not pointing at the speaker's mouth
at the angle I want. This page went smoothly with minimal bad tail
behavior. Still, when I do one wrong the first time there's always that
little hint of "uh oh, is this going to be a problem?" :)
JULY 13,
2010
I finished the lettering for page one (Mark of the Jinn:
Hope), which consisted of building the text boxes & balloons and
tweaking the placement of them. I moved on to page two for more of the
same, but I realized that I needed to polish the panel frames first. I
added a thin (3 pixel) frame around each panel to cover any blemishes
or uneveness caused from scanning. With that out of the way, I finished
off the lettering on this page, too.
JULY 12,
2010
First, I typed in the text for page four, which was only
about three lines. Then, I moved back to page one. Here, I added the
"Chapter One" heading, as well as the "Written by" and "Illustrated by"
credits. After that, I noticed that panels 2 through 5 were a bit rough
around the edges, literally. That is, the panel borders were not clean and
straight. Since these four panels hover above the water background (which
extends from panel 1), it's important to have nice clean cut lines around
these four panels. I zoomed in and edited those edges until everything was
nice and clean, then added a good strong outline around each one. Panel 2
had a bit of a crooked angle on one side, so I had to stretch the image a
bit to make it touch the edge of the panel correctly. This may have been
something I messed up when I was resizing this same panel on a different
day. It's storming here in Memphis, and I'm just glad to get through
today's work without the power going out (which it did for a while earlier
today).
JULY 11,
2010
D.C. White emailed page four to me this morning (Mark of
the Jinn: Hope). I cut the people layer away from the background, which
wasn't too big a deal. It's only two panels, with panel 1 taking up most
of the page. After that, I added gray tones to all the people and
foreground elements. Now that I have all four pages of this first
chapter, I'll be able to have it ready for posting the first of next
month.
JULY 10,
2010
I worked a looong time on the title logo for
"Mark of the Jinn: Hope." Specifically, I built a letter "H" for the logo.
On the first volume of MotJ, I created the title logo by using two
different fonts. For the capital letters, I used a font inspired by
classic Old English script. For the rest of the letters, I used a much
less formal font. So this time, I loaded up those same fonts and made the
word "Hope," except that the letter "H" looked like absolute crap to me.
The capital letter still looked like lowercase. So I spent a ton of time
surfing internet font sites looking for a better "H" that still looked
like Old English, but none of them quite worked. So instead, I decided to
make my own. This may have been a mistake :) I probably spent an hour
fooling with this dumb letter. I used parts of the letter "M," eliminating
the middle post and keeping the outer posts to form my "H." I also shaped
part of it by hand so it would look a bit more wavy (on the upper right
part of the letter). This was to cover the fact that I chopped off the top
connecting piece of the "M." Am I happy with the end result? Hmph. It'll
do. Once I added the "inner glow" effect to the word, it matched the
previous title logo nicely. I placed it on page one of the first chapter
of "MotJ: Hope," and you know what? It's fine. It's not awesome, but it
works.
JULY 9,
2010
Page one of "MotJ: Hope" takes place on the open sea. As
in all chapters of "MotJ," the first panel is an establishing shot where
the credits will go. The way D.C. White drew the page, we see the heroes'
small boat floating in the middle of a bunch of white space. My job today
was to create a flowy water surface texture to cover the page. I used a
couple of techniques I picked up from the internet a while back, and made
a giant image of the water surface (larger than the "MotJ" page). I then
pasted this texture onto the MotJ art, and stretched it / skewed it a bit
to make it fit a little better with the angle we're viewing the boat from.
What I decided to do here, was let this water texture cover the entire
page. There are four square panels below panel 1, but these panels can
"float" above the water texture image. I had to resize panel 2 a bit to
get it to be the same size as the others, but this was pretty simple.
After that, I spent some time toying with the brightness &
contrast of the water texture. It looks good right now, but it might
require more work once I put the title & credits on the page. The
water texture is very "busy" looking, and I don't want it to disrupt the
reader's view of the text.
JULY 8,
2010
Tonight, I typed in the words / text into the available
art of chapters one & two of "Mark of the Jinn: Hope." That's pages
one through three and pages five through eight. I also made a list of some
key points regarding a future volume of "MotJ." Working on these pages
over the last few days, has really got my mind on the main characters. I
may start writing the next volume while I'm still doing digital work on
"Hope."
JULY 7,
2010
First, I separated the people from the background layer
on page three, which was pretty simple since most of the panels here
contained close up head shots. Afterward, I added gray tones to the people
layer in each panel.
JULY 6,
2010
I added gray tones to pages seven and eight from "Mark of
the Jinn: Hope." Both were sort of routine. It helps that I already
figured out which grays to use for the bug (on the previous couple of
pages). In my email, the art for page three arrived from D.C.
White.
JULY 5,
2010
Foreground grays continue on chapter two. There was a bit
more to work on than the previous page. I'm definitely enjoying the
simplified palette I'm using this time, with fewer shades of gray going on
the page. I still plan to add shadows later, which will help differentiate
areas within each panel. Also tonight, I took time to write a response to
an aspiring young artist. This young man drew a story featuring the
villian "Impasse" (a selection from drawthiscomic.com). I think back to
all the crappy "no" letters I got from big companies when I was a kid, or
(even worse) the times I didn't get a response at all. Instead, I wrote
this artist back and pointed out a few areas where I feel his art could
improve. I hope he gets a little encouragement and direction out of my
letter. The ones I always got just felt like a slamming door.
JULY 4,
2010
I started adding gray tones to chapter two of
"MotJ:Hope." I worked on the people layer of page five tonight. This is
the first page of that chapter, so panel 1 contains no foreground
elements. That's where the title and credits go in each
chapter.
JULY 3,
2010
More cleanup and layer separation, this time on page
eight (Mark of the Jinn: Hope). The top half of the page wasn't bad, since
it had some blank background areas. The last two panels, though, had trees
and bug wings to cut around.
JULY 2,
2010
The scan of page seven (Mark of the Jinn: Hope) needed a
lot of cleanup to get rid of the little rogue pixels. After that, I
separated the people & foreground elements from the background. This
also took quite a while, since many panels feature a large bug. Cutting
around the legs and wings required a lot of detail work :)
JULY 1,
2010
Well... I had no idea I'd be able to keep this up so long
when I started. Today marks THREE YEARS that I've done something for my
comics absolutely every single day. That's THIRTY SIX months in a
row. Even during happy & busy times, and even during sad & trying
times. This morning, I moved the previous six months of blog to its own
page in the "previous blogs" archive. I uploaded "Ori v. Goroshi II" to
the site. And tonight, I did layer separations for page six of "Mark of
the Jinn: Hope." Looking back on my routine more than three years ago,
it's a wonder I ever got anything done. I can remember letting "Fall in
the Bamboo Grove" sit for weeks at a time without working on it.
Now, I'm cranking out a new webcomic or web chapter every month, and I
still squeeze in time to work on the "Project Nation" print comic in
between :)
This website as well as all characters and comics listed therein, copyright 2010 Jay W. Davis / One Shot Productions.